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| All We Imagine As Light Photo: Condor Film/Courtesy of Cannes |
All We Imagine As Light, 10.20pm. Film4, Monday, October 5
One of the best films of 2024 is finally making its premiere on terrestrial telly this week. Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Prix winner elegantly weaves together the lives of three women who work at a Mumbai hospital. Nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) is questioning her life, while the younger Anu (Divya Prabha) lives more in the moment. Hospital cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) meanwhile, is facing changes that are not of her choosing. Kapadia’s film is shot through with physical and emotional texture with masterful and inventive use of light by cinematographer Ranabir Das, especially in the night-time scenes. It captures the ebb and flow of life in Mumbai in vivid detail, while handling familiar themes, including displacement and self-determination with freshness and depth. Kapadia told us: “I tried to move away from expositional cinema where everything needs an explanation.”
Till, 11pm, BBC2, Monday, October 5
Jennie Kermode writes: To anyone familiar with the US' ugly history of racism, the story of Emmet Till is so familiar that it's painful to watch it play out on screen. To some viewers, however, it will be new, and director Chinonye Chukwu does a good job of catering to both these audiences in a film which invests a great deal of effort in recreating details. The success of the film is located in Chukwu and her team's recognition that what made this particular lynching so significant was not, for all its horror, the brutal murder of a teenage boy, but the reaction of the boy's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Danielle Deadwyler is stunning in the role, delivering one of the great performances of 2022. The story is judiciously balanced, young Jalyn Hall brings a wonderfully light touch to playing the boy, and overall it feels like an extension of Mamie's wish: that this time, the killing would not be dismissed and forgotten, but people would look, and so come to understand.
The Motorcycle Diaries, 11.35pm, Film4, Tuesday, October 6
Gael Garcia Bernal was fast cementing his name among international audiences when he starred as the young Che Guevara in Walter Salles' coming-of-age film about the young revolutionary, having already grabbed attention with Y Tu Mama Tambien, The Crime Of Padre Amaro and Bad Education, released the same year. The film – based on books by Guevara and his biochemist buddy Alberto Granado (played onscreen by Rodrigo de la Serna) – hits the road with the pair as they head across South America, learning about their continent and themselves as they go. With winning central performances and cinematography from Eric Gautier that captures the magnificence of the landscape in all its diversity, Salles keeps his storytelling simple but effective as Guevara's ethos is shaped by his experience.
The Wicker Man, 9.55pm, BBC4, Thursday, October 8
October is upon us so that means that horror films are starting to crop up on the schedules, and if you want to get the spooky season started in style, Robin Hardy's hugely influential film is a great place to start. Edward Woodward stars as Sergeant Howie, a cop sent to the remote Scottish Summerisle in a bid to locate a missing girl. A devout Christian, his beliefs run up against the Pagan rituals on the island, personified by Christopher Lee, as the Lord of the Isle. Unsettling from the start, the off-kilter nature of Summerisle and its inhabitants becomes increasingly sinister, with the film's mood feeding off Howie's anxiety as he faces both the threat of the isle and the temptations of Britt Ekland's pub barmaid. "With the original film, we wanted to explore the idea of what would happen if we all woke up one days and Christianity was no longer the dominant religion, and instead there was a Pagan shrine down the road," Hardy once told us.
Medusa Deluxe, 12.05am, BBC2, Friday, October 9
Thomas Hardiman's debut is edited to give the appearance of a single-take as a murder mystery unfolds backstage at a hairdressing contest. After a stylist is found dead, gossip abounds and Hardiman makes good use of a strong ensemble cast as his tale of rivalries and complicated relationships unfolds. An offbeat whodunnit, captured with fluid grace by cinematographer Robbie Ryan. Clare Perkins, as a no-nonsense stylist working on a baroque barnet, is the cast standout.
Poor Things, 10pm, Channel 4, Saturday, October 10
While there's no doubt Yorgos Lanthimos' fantastical comedy drama (adapted by Tony McNamara from the book by Alasdair Gray) loses a little bit of its eye-popping glory on the small screen, the bladder-challenging length makes it attractive for home viewing. Emma Stone – who won one of the four Oscars the film garnered – has a whale of a time as Bella Baxter, a woman who has been brought back to life using the brain of a baby by oddball surgeon Dr Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). As she begins to learn about the world, she sets off on an adventure with the rakish Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo, channelling Terry-Thomas), who soon finds out her path to self-discovery might run roughshod over him. Stylish, provocative and laced with plenty of dark humour.
Brief History Of A Family, 1.55am, BBC2, Sunday, October 11
Modern China provides the backdrop for Jianjie’s chilly psychological drama, which has an unsettling vibe that recalls the work of Michael Haneke. Wei (Lin Muran) is an only child, with his parents (Zu Feng and Guo Keyu) pouring their efforts into him, even though he feels a disconnect. An incident at school leads him to bring home Shuo (Sun Xilun), a teenager with a very different attitude and upbringing. Wei’s parents warm to the kid but questions begin to arise about his motivations. Shot with cool angularity and an industrial tympanic score, this is a masterclass in simmering tension. Read what Jianjie Lin said about working on the layers of his story.
We're returning to horror for this week's short selection, Visitors by Kenichi Ugana. You can catch up with his latest work on his Instagram page
